The Writer's Life 1/5 - Next Phase

President Obama proposed new gun measures today. I got to wondering if there were stats or estimates on how many crimes gun ownership prevents, so I googled it. Most of the articles listed on the page seemed to be by anti-gun groups debunking the NRA's claims that ownership deters criminal activity. The others presented stats that pleaded the case that it does. Although I'm not comfortable in the presence of firearms, I just about always come down on the side of freedom, and I do so on this issue. I don't believe new measures will curb shootings. I suppose the most ardent leftists would support confiscation. How many owners would put up armed resistance and how many deaths would be acceptable in the pursuit of zero-gun-tolerance? 10? 100? 1000? 10,000? And how many guns would remain in the possession of criminals? Would authorities be as hapless in stopping the proliferation of the remaining arms as they are in stopping illegal drugs and cigarette smuggling? Life's great questions don't have easy answers.  

Here are two stats from articles in today's NY Post. Neither is surprising. The number one best selling book of 2015 is Harper Lee's long awaited second novel, Go Set a Watchman. 1.6 million copies sold. And the best-selling album is Adele's Hello, which sold 7.4 million. Kudos, ladies.

It was again too cold for the floating book shop. Fortunately, I had plenty of work to do to fill time. I've finished proofing my next book. I found 101 issues that needed addressing, not counting one that I was tempted to overlook. Many involved the change from quotation marks to italics in instances where I cited a song or book. Either is acceptable, but I wanted to be consistent. As I expected, there were many line breaks in the two screenplays. Since so much of the dialogue often involves a single word, there is a constant need for indentation, and there were a slew of errors in that regard. The most tedious aspect involved the em dash, which I probably overuse in an effort for emphasis. Ever since one of the co-publishers of A Hitch in Twilight mentioned in a Facebook post that one of her pet peeves was the use of a hyphen where an em dash is required, I've felt funny about it. It seemed like nitpicking, but I decided I should conform to what is correct. I often remark about the wonders of the computer age. Here's another example: I hit the "Find" tab at the top of the file and typed in a hyphen, and it showed I used more than 1100, including the em dash, which I create by using consecutive hyphens. I believe there is a way to create it so there isn't a tiny space between them, but I wasn't able to ever figure it out. Anyway, I'm now awaiting Create Space's approval of the file so that I can order another proof copy. It would be silly to order 50 copies until I make sure there are no problems on their end. I doubt I'll have the energy to again read every single line. I'll take the leap of faith that the book is virtually error-free.
Vic's 5th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/okxkwh5

Vic's 4th novel: tinyurl.com/bszwlxh

Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3

Vic's Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
Vic's Short Story Collection: http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tiny.cc/0iHLb Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/kx3d3uf
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tinyurl.com/l84h63j

Vic's Rom-Com Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/kny5llp

Vic's Horror Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3f

Vic's Blog: http://vicfortezza.blogspot.com/

Website: http://vicfortezzaauthor.my-free.website/